(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor fabrication. More specifically, the present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a metal layer, a metal wire for a display panel, a thin film transistor array panel, and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Displays such as liquid crystal displays or organic electro-luminescent (EL) display devices currently utilize thin film transistor (TFT) arrays to drive their pixels, creating display images. The thin film transistor array panel typically includes a scanning signal line or a gate line transmitting a scanning signal, an image signal line or a data line transmitting an image signal, a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line, and a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor.
The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode that is a portion of the gate wire, a semiconductor layer forming a channel, a source electrode that is a portion of the data wire, and a drain electrode. The thin film transistor acts as a switching element, controlling an image signal transmitted to the pixel electrode through the data wire according to a scanning signal applied to the gate electrode through the gate line.
While yielding thin, low-profile displays that also produce high-quality images, TFT array panels nevertheless face challenges. For example, increases in panel size have also resulted in increased signal delay due to the corresponding increase in wiring lengths, and the resulting increase in their resistance and capacitance. Efforts to solve this problem have focused on reducing wire resistance, mainly by using metals such as copper that possess relatively low resistivities.
However, copper has relatively poor contact characteristics with other layers, often necessitating the presence of additional adhesive layers such as silicon to be added between the copper layer and other layers. Furthermore, these adhesive layers must be relatively thick, to prevent the copper wiring from being diffused into the lower layer. Unfortunately, the deposition and etching steps required to form and shape these thick adhesive layers are lengthy, which adds to process time and expense.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that is not in the prior art.